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Postmedia senior executive retires

Canada’s largest English-language newspaper chain has announced its senior vice-president of content is retiring at the end of December.

Lou Clancy’s departure is “bittersweet,” Postmedia Network Canada Corp. chief executive officer Paul Godfrey wrote in an internal memo to staff Wednesday. The two have crossed paths more than once in their careers, Godfrey noted.

“He is a spectacular man with a passion for journalism and newspapers – in that order,” the internal memo said.

Clancy’s duties will be assumed by Gerry Nott, senior vice-president, National Post and Postmedia central editorial services, the company said.

The announcement comes amid growing financial strain at the media giant, which owns 200 newspapers, magazines and websites, including the National Post, The Vancouver Province and the Calgary Herald.

The debt-rating agency cited the publisher’s high interest costs relative to its cash flow estimates and raised concerns about its ability to refinance debt that begins maturing in August 2017.

Postmedia’s purchase in April of the rival Sun Media chain has helped boost its cash flow but also increased its debt load.

The company has been on a massive cost-cutting mission since June 2011 that has saved $136 million annually. But more cuts are coming as the company tries to save another $50 million by the end of fiscal 2017.

The company has cut its workforce through several rounds of buyouts and layoffs and has also centralized many functions in a bid to combat declining print revenues.

Postmedia’s annual net loss for the financial year ended Aug. 31 more than doubled to $263.4 million, compared with a $107.5-million loss in fiscal 2014.

Clancy began his career as a copy boy at the Toronto Star in 1964. He held numerous reporting and editing gigs before retiring, for the first time, in November 2009 as editor in chief of the Toronto Sun.

He joined Postmedia in July 2010, agreeing to come out of retirement, to help transform the newspaper company, Godfrey said in the memo.

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